Denis Villeneuve’s Venice and Toronto hit Incendies collected top honours at the 26th Warsaw International Film Festival.

An international jury of Antonia Bird, Francois DaSilva, Mike Downey, Andrzej Jakimowski, and Wolfram Skowronnek-Schaer awareded the film the Warsaw Grand Prix, calling it “a devastatingly beautiful and powerful film,” adding that “it is rare to encounter such quality of depth of ideas in cinema today.”

Olivier Masset-Depasse was named best director for his film Illegal. “The direction of this film draws you in and creates a mesmerizing, shocking and profoundly moving experience,” the jury said in its statement.

Romanian-Austrian co-production Outbound won a Special Jury Award for its script, written by director Bogdan George Apetri and Tudor Voican as well as the FIPRESCI Award and a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury.

The top prize in the Competition 1–2 of directors’ first and second films was shared ex aequo by Marek Lechki’s Erratum and Zeina Durra’s Imperialists Are Still Alive. Olga Špátová’s film Eye Over Prague won the documentary competition while Adrian Sitaru’s The Cage won the short films competition.

Select prize winners, 26th Warsaw International Film Festival

Warsaw Grand Prix: Incendies, dir. Denis Villeneuve (Canada, France)

Best Director: Olivier Masset-Depasse for Illegal (Belgium, Luxembourg, France)

Special Jury Award: Outbound, dir. Bogdan George Apetri, scr. Bogdan George Apetri and Tudor Voican (Romania, Austria)

Competition 1–2, ex equo: Erratum, dir. Marek Lechki (Poland) and Imperialists Are Still Alive, dir. Zeina Durra (US)

Free Spirit Award: Sound Of Noise, dir. Ola Simonsson, Johannes Stjarne Nilsson (Sweden)

Best Documentary Feature: Eye Over Prague, dir. Olga Špátová (Czech Republic)

Best Short Film: The Cage, dir. Adrian Sitaru (Romania, Netherlands)

FIPRESCI Award: Outbound, dir. Bogdan George Apetri (Romania, Austria)

Ecumenical Jury Award, Signis Prize: Childhood, dir. Carlos Carrera (Mexico)

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